Digital supportability for UK Defence

Enabling the Smart Maintainer

A vision of the future world of digital supportability for Defence

With digital transformation happening across UK Defence, we were given just eight weeks by the UK MoD Submarine Operating Centre to deliver a Proof of Concept on the applicability, technology readiness and benefits of Augmented Reality for an engineer/maintainer in a submarine support environment.

A truly immersive Augmented Reality experience was created, painting a traditional environment with “digital insight”. The scenario centred on the decisions required and the information available to an engineer and the wider enterprise in delivering supportability through life; and in particular supporting maintenance activity.

This innovative proof of concept showcased how Augmented Reality could change the shape of supportability – through the exploitation of data sources to truly enable the smart maintainer.

Further work has looked at how this technology could be used to improve communications in the support environment – dramatically shortening timescales for gaining permissions in critical engineering processes whilst enhancing skills, safety and auditability.